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XKeyscore: NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

theguardian.com

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Re: XKeyscore: NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

#21

Post by coldtea »

ceautery wrote: post #7

I wonder how they store all that. Surely a side benefit of this could be NSA contributions to CS journals about database techniques. Also I doubt the veracity of the claim that they collect "nearly everything". Wouldn't they show up on, say, Sandvine's Internet traffic reports? I think it's more likely this claim is made simply to generate FUD in the general population.

>Also I doubt the veracity of the claim that they collect "nearly everything". Wouldn't they show up on, say, Sandvine's Internet traffic reports?

Why would they? They deal with ISPs, backbones and such.

Re: XKeyscore: NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

#22

Post by javert »

ck2 wrote: post #6

Imagine if storage limitations weren't holding back the NSA. Those 60TB density HAMR[1] drives that are due in 2016 are really going to take invasive to a whole new level. [1] http://storageeffect.media.seagate.com/files/2012/03/perpham...

Imagine if the American people weren't holding back the NSA.

Oh, wait...

Re: XKeyscore: NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

#25

Post by packetlss »

susi22 wrote: post #11

One of the screen shots: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/audio/video... says: Top Secret Comm(?) REL() to USA, AUS, CAN, GBR, NZL confirming the previous suspicions that many other governments are on board. Der Spiegel actually has reported a few weeks back about XKeyscore [1] and that it is used by the BND (Germany's NSA). I.e. all this data is also available to the NSA equivalents of Australia, Can…

Not GER, it's GBR as in Great Britain

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UKUSA_Agreement

Re: XKeyscore: NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

#26

Post by bnmathm »

susi22 wrote: post #11

One of the screen shots: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/audio/video... says: Top Secret Comm(?) REL() to USA, AUS, CAN, GBR, NZL confirming the previous suspicions that many other governments are on board. Der Spiegel actually has reported a few weeks back about XKeyscore [1] and that it is used by the BND (Germany's NSA). I.e. all this data is also available to the NSA equivalents of Australia, Can…

I'm pretty sure that's actually GBR - Great Britain.

Re: XKeyscore: NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

#27

Post by colanderman »

bnmathm wrote: post #26
susi22 wrote: post #11

One of the screen shots: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/audio/video... says: Top Secret Comm(?) REL() to USA, AUS, CAN, GBR, NZL confirming the previous suspicions that many other governments are on board. Der Spiegel actually has reported a few weeks back about XKeyscore [1] and that it is used by the BND (Germany's NSA). I.e. all this data is also available to the NSA equivalents of Australia, Can…

I'm pretty sure that's actually GBR - Great Britain.

It definitely is; look at the actual (hi-res) presentation: http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/jul/31/nsa...

Re: XKeyscore: NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

#28

Post by TsiCClawOfLight »

ck2 wrote: post #6

Imagine if storage limitations weren't holding back the NSA. Those 60TB density HAMR[1] drives that are due in 2016 are really going to take invasive to a whole new level. [1] http://storageeffect.media.seagate.com/files/2012/03/perpham...

mmh... but maybe the military is also ahead in that area? Maybe DARPA has 1TB GB/s drives?

Re: XKeyscore: NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

#29

Post by nikcub »

This is overwhelming. Even when you always hear the claims about we knew this was going on, somehow it is still shocking when you see it all laid out infront of you with screenshots and the capabilities described.

I can see how they get HTTP information, since they would intercept at transit hubs - but how are they getting all Facebook private messages and Gmail?

I was also looking for another unique ID that users are identified by - perhaps a machine or browser fingerprint or some form of intel that can 'glue' different browsers together and make a best guess if they are the same person (Facebook does this with device and user cookies) but couldn't find anything. It seems they rely solely on email addresses, IP addresses, cookies and HTTP headers.

So if you are browsing via 16 tor circuits and a browser that defaults to incognito with session histories being wiped, they couldn't reconstruct your history.

Users of PGP/encryption products being singled out is terrifying. The sooner we have the whole world using decent encryption tools, the better.

Edit: Gmail messages must only be captured when they leave the Google network. They are the only provider to support server-to-server TLS: https://twitter.com/ashk4n/status/346807239002169344/photo/1

They must only be getting a slice of the Facebook chat data, since the transport there is also https.

Facebook Messenger, on the other hand, uses MQTT, so it transmits and stores in plaintext. It has support for encrypted + signed messages with OTR if you are using an alternate client such as Adium or Pidgin.

Really need to go out an audit all of these services and let users know which are better.

Re: XKeyscore: NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

#30

Post by jstalin »

Slide 6 of the presentation clearly shows that pretty much every government is in on the program, with heavy concentration in western Europe.

One question, how did the dot in China get there?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/jul/31/nsa...

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